The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Combustion of an air/fuel mixture within an internal combustion engine of a vehicle generates heat. Cooling the engine is a cyclical process. Cool engine coolant absorbs heat from the engine, and the (warmed) engine coolant is circulated to a radiator. The radiator facilitates heat transfer from the engine coolant to air passing the radiator. The (cooled) engine coolant is circulated from the radiator back to the engine to absorb more heat from and cool the engine.
A cooling fan may also be implemented to provide airflow past the radiator at times when little air may otherwise pass the radiator. For example only, the cooling fan may be activated to provide airflow past the radiator when a vehicle speed is low or when an aerodynamic shutter is open and airflow past the radiator is low.
The radiator or another heat exchanging structure may implement one or more features to reduce an amount of ground-level ozone (O3) in the air flowing into an engine compartment of the vehicle. For example, at least a portion of a surface of the radiator may be coated with a catalyst that converts the ozone in the air into (diatomic) oxygen (O2). For example only, the catalyst may include a PremAir coating that converts three molecules of ozone to two molecules of oxygen.